This boy is moving into his college dorm room today. BOY! DORM! Holy smokes where did his chubby baby cheeks go. The youngest in the family. Número 8. And Lorra, Matt, and I get to move him in. Farewell boy, you are growing up. At least you can’t grow facial hair yet. Don’t want to overwhelm me at once. Haha!

1. The most I’ve spent this last week was on savings! Now that we are debt free (woot!) we are saving up for a huge shop for Twitch. My entire paycheck and part of his are being funneled into savings so we can pay CASH for his shop!

2. Today I am thankful for library books. So awesome that I can be completely non committal and not feel bad for getting liek 10 books and only reading parts of half on them.

3. Money can’t buy happiness. One free thing I did last week that made me happy was take Pop Tart to doggy training lessons. It wasn’t supposed to be free, but my very generous aunt surprised me by paying for his lesson!

4. I will consider this week a success if I do my Physical Therapy exercises every day this week. Rehabbing a knee and ankle.

5. The last thing I won was a gift card to Harley Davidson. I went to breakfast with biker dudes at their monthly club meeting. Never seen so many men in leather giving each other hello hugs. Then it was in to Mimi’s for brunch. The irony was not lost on me 🙂

This is the fam, well, the California portion of the clan. The rest are in Texas leading dull lives. I like to think that so I don’t get jealous of all their fun 🙂 We said goodbye to sister second from the left- she was headed back to Texas after spending the Summer her in Cali.1. The Olympics are awesome! What’s your favorite Summer Olympic event to watch?
Boo. We don’t have any cable, so I haven’t watched ANY of the Olympics. Usually I love gymnastics though!

2. If you could compete in an Olympic event (either season), which would it be?
Ice Skating- the partner kind. I would also need a huge dose of courage and probably a lobotomy to be willing to be thrown through the air like that.

3. Would you rather be tickled to death or poked (by finger) constantly for the rest of your life?
Tickled to death. I would so end up peeing my pants on them and that would be a really nice revenge.

4. Do you keep your nails long or short? Square or round?
Long. I love having long nails! Makes me feel purty. They are round- because I think they look more real like that.

5. Do you think you’re funny?
Duh, I’m stinkin hilarious. I laugh all the time at my jokes and general wittiness.

6. When you have something you’re looking forward to SO much, but it’s still a ways off, what do you do to keep yourself distracted?
I make one of those countdown chains like for Christmas. You know, where you tear one off every day. Those things were awesome. Did you ever think that you could fool the world by tearing extra ones off? Christmas would come earlier? No? Me neither, cough.

7. You’ve just won an Olympic Gold Medal! What are you going to do next?!?!
Probably taking a ridiculously long nap. Seriously, those people must be SO tired! But I guess most of them are like teenagers. They have unlimited energy. In that case, I would totally start spending my endorsement cash. Everyone wants to sign me as their spokesmodel right?

1. The most I’ve spent this last week was on food. Costco always is a big bill. I also got lots of Summer fruits and veggies from the Farmer’s Market and a local farmer.

2. Today I am thankful for the news that my family is flying out to California for Christmas! I’m so excited they are going to be here!!

3. Money can’t buy happiness. One free thing I did last week that made me happy was throw a going away party for my sister. She’s flying back to Texas today for the school year, and we got to spend hours yesterday just hanging out and laughing.

4. I will consider this week a success if I pull out my Summer list and get some things checked off. I love lists! I love checking things off lists too!

5. I am trying to incorporate more real foods in my diet. I am on the GAPS diet for healing and it seems like just when I get really good at something, I let something else go. Like getting in lots of probiotics, but totally forgetting about the healing broth and supplements.

I’ve been making my own Ranch for a while now. I can’t remember where I got this recipe, but I hear it tastes like Hidden Valley.

Twitch’s Ranch Dressing:

1/2 c. Mayo

1/2 c. buttermilk

1/4 tsp. parsley

1/4 tsp. pepper

1/4 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. garlic powder

1/8 tsp. onion powder

pinch of thyme

Mix it all up. Done. It tastes best after a day in the fridge.

Note: Using a blender will make this runnier. It breaks down the mayo.

If you want to make BBQ ranch, then just mix in your favorite BBQ sauce!

On hot Summer days, it’s nice not to turn the oven on or anything. It’s also nice to BBQ, which would have been great if I hadn’t left the gas on for like 3 hours and killed the propane tank the other day. Dang. Minus one for the wife.